Shouldn't it be called X Combinator? :)
In a post that is pretty serious and has some heavy conversion, I appreciate your joke.
Announcing the Female Founders Conference (March 1)
131–140 of 295 posts
Re: Announcing the Female Founders Conference (March 1)
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem with ‘feminism’ is that it is essentially worthless as a label to denote a political ideology – sure, there are some people who call themselves ‘feminist’ who have perfectly respectable views, but there are also a bunch of people calling themselves ‘feminists’ who are worse sexists than anybody else. Sure, equal rights and all such things are good and proper aims, but ‘cutting off penises’ is not. Certain…
Is there any label that people apply to themselves or others that successfully filters out the lunatic fringe from reasonable people? I'm not afraid to call myself a feminist (even though that puts me in the same camp as some crazy people) in the same way that I'm not afraid to call myself a hacker or a man or a parent or an urban farmer.
> Is there any label that people apply to themselves or others that successfully filters out the lunatic fringe from reasonable people?
I don’t know, it probably has to do with the visibility of these fringe groups and your position in the spectrum described by the label. I am sure there are lunatic social democrats somewhere, I have just not yet met them, and I am also positive that there are lunatic liberal democrats somewhere, but again I have not yet met them.
OTOH, there certainly are lunatic ‘scientists’, but they take a sufficiently small stage in public that I can self-identify as a scientist without having to worry about being confused with them.
> I'm not afraid to call myself a feminist (even though that puts me in the same camp as some crazy people) in the same way that I'm not afraid to call myself a hacker or a man or a parent or an urban farmer.
Even if I was a hacker (I really am not, just an interested guy), I would hesitate to call myself a hacker in front of an audience that associates the word mostly with their CC details being stolen.
Language is difficult.
Re: Announcing the Female Founders Conference (March 1)
#133I'm assuming some HNers are soon to arrive saying things like "why does it matter that a founder is a female?", "why make an excluding event? isn't it sexism all the same", "imagine if someone make a 'male founders conference'?" I would like to ask you to think for a moment, before raising this concerns (I am not bothering here to debate with haters, only with those who are genuinely concerned that this might sexism…
The only problem is when the people who are throwing the sexist event go on to claim they are against sexism. The logical position is to say that it is indeed sexist but that it is necessary, but they lose their standing to complain about a Founder's Club - Men Only event.
Looking forward to you organizing and hosting a Male Startup Founders Conference and paying for it out of your own pocket.
Re: Announcing the Female Founders Conference (March 1)
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is no mention of males involved or invited to come anywhere else, so I'm going to believe that drop down exists to send a "thanks for your support" or is simply an oversight. I don't have a moral problem with gender exclusive events. It's sexist and exclusionary and that's ok, and I hope the ladies putting on the event feel the same.
Did you read the thread where people running the event have said that males can apply, but that females are goven priority?
I did not, thanks. However, can we agree that a drop down box and a comment buried on HN being the only indications men are welcome to apply amounts to hair splitting when we are deciding whether or not to classify this as a gender exclusive event?
Re: Announcing the Female Founders Conference (March 1)
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is there any label that people apply to themselves or others that successfully filters out the lunatic fringe from reasonable people? I'm not afraid to call myself a feminist (even though that puts me in the same camp as some crazy people) in the same way that I'm not afraid to call myself a hacker or a man or a parent or an urban farmer.
> Is there any label that people apply to themselves or others that successfully filters out the lunatic fringe from reasonable people? I don’t know, it probably has to do with the visibility of these fringe groups and your position in the spectrum described by the label. I am sure there are lunatic social democrats somewhere, I have just not yet met them, and I am also positive that there are lunatic liberal democra…
If someone misunderstands what I mean about self-identifying as a hacker, it creates an opportunity to explain that the word can mean "person who is driven to build, tinker, explore, and experiment" the same way that the word feminist can mean "person who feels that civilized societies shouldn't treat women as second-class citizens".
Language is difficult, but it's important enough to care about doing well.
Re: Announcing the Female Founders Conference (March 1)
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
Where I really crossed the threshold into understanding Feminism was in a class I took in college (as trite as it sounds). We were discussing gender-specific organizations, not unlike the one in this post, when someone asked why it's OK for women to have a conference, but if men did, people would flip. The teacher gave a long-winded answer, but what really stuck with me most was a single statement: "Because every oth…
Sorry, are you saying that statement made you understand as in the statement is an explanation of some essential point of feminism? Or are you saying that statement made you understand that feminism often (not always!) has a tenuous grasp on reality, tends to make baseless or meaningless statements, and is purely ideological much of the time? Because that statement -- which btw is the standard "I don't want to have t…
It seems you need a bit more than dclowd9901. Perhaps "White Privilege and Male Privilege" by Peggy McIntosh and "Oppression" by Marilyn Frye are good places to start:
http://www.iub.edu/~tchsotl/part2/McIntosh%20White%20Privile...
http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/tbettch/Frye,%20Oppression...
Re: Announcing the Female Founders Conference (March 1)
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Some radical feminists only accept 'born as women' to their conferences. And if transwomen are accepted, what's their definition of that. Really. That's interesting. I know... a few feminists 'round these parts who might be characterized "radical." Can't think of anyone getting their hate on against trans women. And I don't know why you would raise such a specter of exclusion with no basis.
Feminists fighting against trans women is a fairly well known phenomenon. Feminist and transphobic are hardly mutually exclusive worldviews. Edit: dug up a few pointer links: http://www.transadvocate.com/unpacking-transphobia-in-femini... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transphobia#Transphobia_in_fem... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminist_views_on_transgenderi... http://lmgtfy.com/?q=transphobia+feminism
Nice job bringing up one side of the issue. Here's the other:
http://againstallevidence.wordpress.com/2011/04/11/cant-we-a...
http://culturallyboundgender.wordpress.com/2013/07/07/the-on...
http://radfemriseup.wordpress.com/2013/07/12/30-women-meet-f...
http://culturallyboundgender.wordpress.com/2013/07/24/shared...
Re: Announcing the Female Founders Conference (March 1)
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
Feminists fighting against trans women is a fairly well known phenomenon. Feminist and transphobic are hardly mutually exclusive worldviews. Edit: dug up a few pointer links: http://www.transadvocate.com/unpacking-transphobia-in-femini... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transphobia#Transphobia_in_fem... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminist_views_on_transgenderi... http://lmgtfy.com/?q=transphobia+feminism
While this may be a thing , what I have observed is that those most concerned with feminism in tech offer pretty consistent solidarity with their trans brothers and sisters. I don't believe this was invoked in good faith. Next level concern troll. Thanks for discussing this issue and offering links, too.
Why thank them for providing you sources strictly on one side of the issue? Here's a self-identified "radical feminist" take on it: http://againstallevidence.wordpress.com/2011/04/11/cant-we-a...
Re: Announcing the Female Founders Conference (March 1)
#139While we're on the topic of conferences that target a specific slice, does anyone know if there's something like an Immigrant Founders Conference? That sounds like another demographic that has huge potential and could use some pretty specific kinds of help.
I've been involved with several country/region specific immigrant entrepreneur conferences.
For example, the famous video of Guy Kawasaki speaking about the Art of the Start was filmed at TiECon, which is run by The Indus Entrepreneurs.
Re: Announcing the Female Founders Conference (March 1)
#140Aren't the autistic-transgendered-albino hackers are also an underrepresented group? Where does the fragmentation stop?
Wow, you can take something reasonable and stretch it until it is no longer reasonable! What rhetorical mastery!